Star Wars Episode 7??

[clone]

Disney has been quoted saying they plan on releasing a new Star Wars film every 2 to 3 years..... be very afraid.

Which still kicked serious ass. Disney has shown that if they want to make a great movie, they can do it.

Disney gave money to enable the making of the Avengers after Marvel did all of the franchise building..... I'm not sure that's amazing, Disney threw a lot of money at John Carter and it was a disaster and I don't know who supported that steaming pile of crap that was Battleship but that was another mistake.

Avengers was to Joss Whedon what the Matrix was to Keanu Reeves.... a perfect fit in every way, I'm glad Avengers was a Whedon project but Joss is a limited Guru no matter how much I loved FireFly and I would be very scared if he was given the reigns of Star Wars.

If Disney hands Whedon the Star Wars franchise, a blank check, and at least one strong co-writer to keep Whedon from overdoing the drama, then I'll believe something special is about to happen.

I'd prefer to see Christopher Nolan do a Star Wars film with the funds required.

on a side note I don't believe Disney should jump into making a Star Wars film too quickly, I'd much rather see Disney build LucasFilm into it's Sci Fi franchise maker by getting ahold of Tobey Macquire who owns the rights to making a Robotech Film, I believe that would be a less risky proposition while also offering a serious opportunity to build another franchise.

as for the Star Wars movies what I'd love to see if Disney throw about 5 million and a cppl of technical advisors into tweaking the first three movies (4,5,6) so that many scenes make sense..... like the first movies moment where all of the defending troops decided to fall over and then run down the halls waving their arms around when the Imperial troopers boarded the ship versus holding them at the entrance and picking them off..... a simple answer would be some future version of flash bangs thrown by the first imperial trooper as he got shot but I had to think that up with the movie instead favoring the "let's all just fall over and then run away".

[Forge]

Now if Disney were to release original theatrical releases of all Star Was, ESB, and RotJ, I will take this as a sign that everything is well and right in the world.

Didn't George Lucas say that he had lost (destroyed) the originals and therefore we could never go back to them?

Even if this is true, there are so many ways they could release them again. Shoot, just get me the laserdisk version on DVD and I'd be satisfied. Blu-Ray and I'd be ecstatic.

The original quote was that he had "cut, physically cut the negatives" when making the first SE, and there was no original first generation source left for the GOUT.

[superjawes]

Nolan is good, yes, but I think Whedon would have the level of respect needed to do Star Wars well. On top of that, Avengers proved that Whedon can make a movie with multiple lead roles without marginalizing any of them. That's something very important to a franchise that boasts multiple main characters like Star Wars.

As for "tweaking" The Original Trilogy, hell no. Just make sure Han shoots first and Vader doesn't ruin the scene where he kills the Emperor by saing "No." The only real problem with them now is that Lucas changed what actually happened...

[jweller]

After the horror that was the three prequels hopefully George Lucas won't be directing. His directing sensibilities are still stuck in 1976.

[Forge]

After the horror that was the three prequels hopefully George Lucas won't be directing. His directing sensibilities are still stuck in 1976.

His direction isn't so bad, it's his dialog-writing that causes pain.

Also, since he's said he's completely retiring from everything, I think we're probably safe from him for now.

[Vrock]

Now if Disney were to release original theatrical releases of all Star Was, ESB, and RotJ, I will take this as a sign that everything is well and right in the world.

Didn't George Lucas say that he had lost (destroyed) the originals and therefore we could never go back to them?

Even if this is true, there are so many ways they could release them again. Shoot, just get me the laserdisk version on DVD and I'd be satisfied. Blu-Ray and I'd be ecstatic.

Uh, it's been out since 2006, it is indeed a direct rip from the 1993 laserdiscs, and the quality is poor unless you're watching on a 27" CRT television. Put those puppies on a modern LCD or plasma of any appreciatable size, and you'll be bombarded with aliasing artifacts and other the limitations of a decades-old analog video transfer that was scrubbed to death with primitive digital noise reduction.

[Vrock]

The original quote was that he had "cut, physically cut the negatives" when making the first SE, and there was no original first generation source left for the GOUT.

This may be true, but there's still high quality prints out there in the hands of private collectors, and even the National Film Registry has prints that may be in good enough shape to use. Personally, I believe Lucas is a loud liar when he says he has no first gen sources anymore. But the whole thing is a moot point anyway, because I really doubt that he passed all rights and control of his existing films to Disney. That would be a very un-Lucas like move. First, we all know that George isn't done tinkering yet, he never will be, damn his eyes. Second, Fox held the distribution rights for years, but Lucas decided when and what would be released, and on what formats. The deal with Disney is likely similar. Nah, George is way too much of a control freak and too shrewd of a businessman to just give it all away for a "measly" $4 billion.

[tanker27]

Shoot, just get me the laserdisk version on DVD and I'd be satisfied. Blu-Ray and I'd be ecstatic.

Uh, it's been out since 2006, it is indeed a direct rip from the 1993 laserdiscs, and the quality is poor unless you're watching on a 27" CRT television. Put those puppies on a modern LCD or plasma of any appreciatable size, and you'll be bombarded with aliasing artifacts and other the limitations of a decades-old analog video transfer that was scrubbed to death with primitive digital noise reduction.[/quote]

Dang Vrock beat to it. Yeah if you know where to look you can find the Laserdisk editions on DVD and Blu-Ray. I myself have a copy, but FWIW, On my 2012 51" Plasma TV it just doesnt hold up to looking good. There artifacts come out in force.

[Forge]

It's commonly referred to in my circles as the GOUT, I believe Grand Old Unedited Trilogy. The DVD images are widely circulated, simply because Lucas works so hard to make that not so.

A guy called Harmy spent a LOT of time and effort making a hybrid of the Blurays and the GOUT DVDs (for what few scenes were just plain not in the Blurays), and he made a very watchable set of 720p encodes available. They're generally called "Harmy's DeSpecialized Trilogy". I actually asked why 720p quite some time ago, and I was told that 720p didn't make the DVD sections look horrible, while still letting the Bluray transfer look pretty good.

He did redo the white balance and retouched an awful lot of stuff by hand, with a laserdisc at hand to check his work. It's quite nice.

[tanker27]

Oh wow I just looked that up......he used the Japanese Special Collection LaserDisc, which is considered the most accurate to the Theatricals.

[Forge]

I believe he used those as the reference. It's extremely high quality. Star Wars, and Lucas's manhandling thereof, seems to have drawn a great number of very talented fans out of the woodwork to undo his molestation. It's really quite impressive.

[Vrock]

I was actually referring to the officially released "bonus" discs in 2006 that were laserdisc transfers. They're better than the laserdiscs thanks to DVDs component video and slightly higher resolution, but they're 4:3 letterboxed and full of aliasing artifacts.

I have the Harmony editions and they aren't perfect but are as close as we are likely to get absent an official release.

[Forge]

Ah, yes, the GOUT ('bonus') DVDs were quite nice, for what they were. There's no mistaking them for anything but what they were, though, a token effort to appease some 'troublesome' fans.

I think that is what damns Lucas most in my mind. He resents his most devoted fans, and thinks that the biggest fans are the biggest fools, and the biggest pain.

[clone]

Nolan is good, yes, but I think Whedon would have the level of respect needed to do Star Wars well. On top of that, Avengers proved that Whedon can make a movie with multiple lead roles without marginalizing any of them. That's something very important to a franchise that boasts multiple main characters like Star Wars.

I just don't see Joss Whedon as a good fit, he does entertaining fun, light projects very well, Buffy, Avengers, FireFly, what he doesn't do that well is dark/serious/epic projects very well, Dollhouse, Cabin In The Woods because he still wants to make light of them, his strength/his weakness.

I agree with your points but Star Wars isn't Avengers nor should it be, Avengers was light hearted and fun, I believe Star Wars should be darker and more epic and consider it's biggest failing being that the series was more popcorn epic than epic given all of the subject matter was far darker it's the pandering to infants that's grown to be the series biggest failure.

the 8 year olds that watched Star Wars have grown up, Lucas never allowed Star Wars too which is why so many were disappointed..... regarding the Star Wars Fans, they don't matter, a Star Wars fan will scream and moan from start to finish about how it shouldn't be changed, altered, tweaked, fixed, modified, cry that it is blasphemy...... and then they'll be the first to camp out in line and buy a ticket and then proceed to watch it 3 more times.

Steve Jobs said it best when he said "ppl don't know what they want, it's up to us to figure that out."

[shaq_mobile]

Maybe Disney will have a higher quality story. Either that or they'll introduce Wookie Jesus. I would totally watch that!

[clone]

hopefully but I'm not confident, have kinda given up on hoping for a darker/better Star Wars film.

[superjawes]

I just don't see Joss Whedon as a good fit, he does entertaining fun, light projects very well, Buffy, Avengers, FireFly, what he doesn't do that well is dark/serious/epic projects very well, Dollhouse, Cabin In The Woods because he still wants to make light of them, his strength/his weakness.

I agree with your points but Star Wars isn't Avengers nor should it be, Avengers was light hearted and fun, I believe Star Wars should be darker and more epic and consider it's biggest failing being that the series was more popcorn epic than epic given all of the subject matter was far darker it's the pandering to infants that's grown to be the series biggest failure.

the 8 year olds that watched Star Wars have grown up, Lucas never allowed Star Wars too which is why so many were disappointed..... regarding the Star Wars Fans, they don't matter, a Star Wars fan will scream and moan from start to finish about how it shouldn't be changed, altered, tweaked, fixed, modified, cry that it is blasphemy...... and then they'll be the first to camp out in line and buy a ticket and then proceed to watch it 3 more times.

Steve Jobs said it best when he said "ppl don't know what they want, it's up to us to figure that out."

Your memory of Star Wars is very different from mine. There was plenty of light-hearted dialogue in the Original Trilogy between Han and Chewie, Han and Leia, and Yoda...period. That's before you throw in C3PO and R2D2. But even then, HAVING jokes and fun does not mean that the overall tone is light in any respect.

I thought Avengers was very true to some of the serious moments laid out in the Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor films. All of those films had serious stories. They also had fun. Nothing is purely light nor dark, and even The Dark Knight had a few good one-liners. Avengers had a serious story (well...as serious one can get about superheroes and monsters from space), and it was done well.

[clone]

you are correct my memory of Star Wars when I was 8 was that it was incredible, amazing, the Empire was a serious enemy that was to be feared, the problem with that is that my memory 20 years later was that Star Wars was actually popcorn, disappointing, unfortunate.

as an 8 year old I loved it I think I cheered when the death star exploded.... but I'm not 8 anymore, the reason the last 3 Star Wars movies were so disappointing at the box office and in the eyes of the majority of non 8 years who watched it is because the series never grew up.

you are correct if I was interested in being 8 again and watching another Star Wars through the eyes of an 8 year old then Joss Whedon could probably do a decent enough job of it, but I don't, I want more, the reason the latest Batman trilogy will be remembered is not because of the popcorn of the previous Batman movies but because the latest trilogy was far darker, far more honest..... Star Wars needs to be that, it's not 1977.

[Hawkwing74]

Is the target audience for Star Wars 8 year olds or 38 year olds? Since this is Disney we're talking about, I think I know what the answer is.

[Captain Ned]

as an 8 year old I loved it I think I cheered when the death star exploded.... but I'm not 8 anymore, the reason the last 3 Star Wars movies were so disappointing at the box office and in the eyes of the majority of non 8 years who watched it is because the series never grew up.

Whereas I beg to differ. As one who saw the Only True Print at 13 in 1977 and then suffered through 1-3, their failure was simple: 4-6 were written (well, 6 had some issues) from the same cheeze-ball Saturday serial POV as the the original Indiana Jones. If (and that's a mighty big if) 1-3 had been written and directed in the same style as 4 we wouldn't be talking about this. Lucas needed to show that he'd matured and he wrecked his prime creation to do so.

Is the target audience for Star Wars 8 year olds or 38 year olds? Since this is Disney we're talking about, I think I know what the answer is.

How about 48 year olds remembering 1977? We've got the dosh and we'll drag all of our kids so "they can see what Daddy saw". Instant money. Besides, a good part of me still is and always be 8 (to 13).

The truly scary part is that I remember most of the glaring continuity errors in 4's theatrical release.

[ludi]

I just don't see Joss Whedon as a good fit, he does entertaining fun, light projects very well, Buffy, Avengers, FireFly, what he doesn't do that well is dark/serious/epic projects very well, Dollhouse, Cabin In The Woods because he still wants to make light of them, his strength/his weakness.

Buffy began its run some fifteen years ago, when Joss Whedon was a smidgen younger than SMG is now. You gotta stop living in the past.

I skipped Cabin in the Woods after reading a couple reviews and deciding that it wouldn't be edifying in any possible way, but according to those reviews, the very intention was to subvert the entire teen camp-horror genre, so I'm not sure how you went in expecting Serious Commentary. Instead, try re-watching Serenity.

[Vrock]

Is the target audience for Star Wars 8 year olds or 38 year olds?

The success of the original trilogy was that it appealed to both groups simultaneously. This was lost with Episode I.

[tanker27]

A guy called Harmy spent a LOT of time and effort making a hybrid of the Blurays and the GOUT DVDs (for what few scenes were just plain not in the Blurays), and he made a very watchable set of 720p encodes available. They're generally called "Harmy's DeSpecialized Trilogy". I actually asked why 720p quite some time ago, and I was told that 720p didn't make the DVD sections look horrible, while still letting the Bluray transfer look pretty good.

He did redo the white balance and retouched an awful lot of stuff by hand, with a laserdisc at hand to check his work. It's quite nice.

Forge.....these are OUT-FREAKING-TASTIC!

This guy put in a lot of work, and scrubbing scrubbing. It makes me wonder if he had access to some ultra high end equipment.

[JustAnEngineer]

It's commonly referred to in my circles as the GOUT, I believe Grand Old Unedited Trilogy. The DVD images are widely circulated, simply because Lucas works so hard to make that not so.

A guy called Harmy spent a LOT of time and effort making a hybrid of the Blurays and the GOUT DVDs (for what few scenes were just plain not in the Blurays), and he made a very watchable set of 720p encodes available. They're generally called "Harmy's DeSpecialized Trilogy". I actually asked why 720p quite some time ago, and I was told that 720p didn't make the DVD sections look horrible, while still letting the Bluray transfer look pretty good.

He did redo the white balance and retouched an awful lot of stuff by hand, with a laserdisc at hand to check his work. It's quite nice.

I still have the Star Wars Trilogy definitive collection boxed LaserDisc set... and a working LaserDisc player.

[TheEmrys]

I still have the Star Wars Trilogy definitive collection boxed LaserDisc set... and a working LaserDisc player.

I've got the original RCA analog video disc copies. Only issues are:

1. no widescreen/letterboxing
2. you have to flip the discs ever 59 minutes

[Vrock]

It's commonly referred to in my circles as the GOUT, I believe Grand Old Unedited Trilogy. The DVD images are widely circulated, simply because Lucas works so hard to make that not so.

A guy called Harmy spent a LOT of time and effort making a hybrid of the Blurays and the GOUT DVDs (for what few scenes were just plain not in the Blurays), and he made a very watchable set of 720p encodes available. They're generally called "Harmy's DeSpecialized Trilogy". I actually asked why 720p quite some time ago, and I was told that 720p didn't make the DVD sections look horrible, while still letting the Bluray transfer look pretty good.

He did redo the white balance and retouched an awful lot of stuff by hand, with a laserdisc at hand to check his work. It's quite nice.

I still have the Star Wars Trilogy definitive collection boxed LaserDisc set... and a working LaserDisc player.

I find fewer and fewer reasons to keep lasersdisc stuff as the years go by. I sold both of my players a couple of years ago, as LD just didn't cut it on large HDTVs. As for Star Wars, the official DVD bonus discs are far superior to the LDs with regards to video quality. Those old LDs you have are CAV discs too, which means 30 minutes per side and then flipping the disc. No thanks. On the plus side, the LDs do have a very nice PCM soundtrack that's better than the 192kps Dolby Digital 2.0 on the DVDs, but other than that, eh. Either release probably looks about the same on an old CRT TV, but nobody's watching those these days.

[Vrock]

A guy called Harmy spent a LOT of time and effort making a hybrid of the Blurays and the GOUT DVDs (for what few scenes were just plain not in the Blurays), and he made a very watchable set of 720p encodes available. They're generally called "Harmy's DeSpecialized Trilogy". I actually asked why 720p quite some time ago, and I was told that 720p didn't make the DVD sections look horrible, while still letting the Bluray transfer look pretty good.

He did redo the white balance and retouched an awful lot of stuff by hand, with a laserdisc at hand to check his work. It's quite nice.

Forge.....these are OUT-FREAKING-TASTIC!

This guy put in a lot of work, and scrubbing scrubbing. It makes me wonder if he had access to some ultra high end equipment.

So...they're pretty good at first glance, yes. There's flaws, though, that are unavoidable given the numerous sources used to create these encodes. The spliced in scenes are obvious, and the encode has compression artifacts (understandable given his desire to squeeze 720p video onto a DVD9 disc. They could have been better if he used less compression and went for a blu-ray sized file instead. It was free, so I ain't bitching, but all things considered, the official Blu-rays are far superior, and frankly the offical 2004 DVDs are just as good if not better for many scenes.

[clone]

Instead, try re-watching Serenity.

seen it, own it, love it, seen almost all of Joss Whedon's work save for the sing along blog and I've no regrets saying that Joss Whedon wouldn't be my first, 2nd or third choice..... I'd prefer not use him to be honest to do a new Star Wars film no matter how much of a fan he is of the series, and to be clear he is a huge fan of it.

I would consider JJ Abrahms an even worse choice for a new Star Wars despite how much I enjoyed 2009's Star Trek franchise reboot.

The success of the original trilogy was that it appealed to both groups simultaneously. This was lost with Episode I.

yes and no, the success of the first Star Wars was sealed when the imperial cruiser flew onscreen in the first scene because Star Wars came out when special effects could sell a movie, kids on the other hand require almost no effort to please so long as something happens within a 10 minute timeframe so they don't get bored which is why kids liked Jar Jar Binks while adults disliked The Phantom Menace.

1-3 had been written and directed in the same style as 4 we wouldn't be talking about this.

totally disagree, writing episode 1-3 in serial form wouldn't have prevented Jar Jar Binks, the first sith from being killed in episode 1, would not have prevented "you aren't like sand, it gets everywhere, it's rough", would not have prevented George Lucas from inserting a recording of his cold into General Greivous's character, would not have prevented the wooden acting, the "roger roger" robots, the stilted dialogue..... so very many bad choices from acting to dialogue plagued the latter 3 star wars releases.

with 1- 3 Lucas was no longer limited by technology or his inexperience and no matter how much any dislikes them they are what George had hoped 4 - 6 could have been which is proven by the tweaks he's done over the past 3 decades to 4 - 6, like adding a CGI lounge singer & a horrible song all the way to Darth Vader crying "NOOOOOOooooooo!".... just plain really bad choices that showcase how lucky "we" all were that he was limited during the first 3 movies.

Is the target audience for Star Wars 8 year olds or 38 year olds? Since this is Disney we're talking about, I think I know what the answer is.

the first and 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean and Avengers shows their is hope.

tbc when I was 8 I really enjoyed the first Star Wars but the audience that watched it isn't 8 and effects laden movies are commonplace nowadays, as prone to failure as any other category of movies.

my first choice would be Christopher Nolan, 2nd Bryan Singer, 3rd Peter Jackson although to be honest Peter Jackson would be a distant 3rd because he has shown a tendency use battles to set tone instead of allowing them to ebb and flow in a more genuine fashion, regardless all would likely do a better job than Joss Whedon or JJ Abrahms.

[JustAnEngineer]

seen almost all of Joss Whedon's work save for the sing along blog

I will recommend Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lho38IPFozU&hd=1

[Vrock]

Apparently Harmy recently released version 2.0 of Star Wars Despecialized, which allegedly includes better video. It won't fit on a DVD9, so it probably does have better video. Worth checking out.